It’s been a little while since I’ve updated the blog. The good news is it’s because I’ve had my head down writing. Twenty-twenty-one has presented a number of new opportunities that will influencing my writing for the rest of the year.
I’ve written sixty-thousand words in the last four months and a third of that was on my first novella to be published in June by the amazing Eerie River Publishing. Details to follow, but for those of you who wanted a sequel to Thorn in my Side (featured in It Calls from the Sky). You’re in luck. It’s been a challenge and at times great fun to write a longer piece. It’s given me an opportunity to work on skills that are difficult to practise in shorter stories, e.g. a complex multi-character led story, detailed world-building. That said, the first draft came in at 23k and I’ll be looking to tighten up the story by 3k before launch day.
Another interesting writing detour this quarter included, Raven & Drake Publishing’s – Candy Capers charity anthology. A collection of sweet family-friendly tales, all proceeds going to The Brain Tumour Charity. I’d love to see a lot more charity calls opportunities. As a big fan of Roald Dahl’s stories, going all Willy Wonka was fun and writing for a younger audience proved an interesting exercise. Hopefully, I didn’t drop too many bombs.
I’ve written a handful of short stories recently that found themselves clipped by target word counts and a couple that were strong enough to easily stretch to a novella if not further, One particular short would make for a great anthology of interlinked shared-world stories. So, my goal this year will be to focus a little more on these longer projects. That said, there are always going to be calls I can’t resist. In this quarter this included:
| Title | Type | Genre | Words | Publisher | Anthology |
| The Modern Medusa | Story | Fantasy | 1325 | Raven and Drake Publishing | New Tales of Old |
| The Sleeping Forest | Story | Dark Fantasy | 1484 | ||
| Zigzag | Story | Dark Fantasy | 500 | Iron Fairie Publishing | Flights of Fancy |
| Meg’s Daughters | Drabble | Dark Fantasy | 100 | Beaking Rules Europe | Lost Lore & Legends |
| The Luring | Drabble | Dark Fantasy | 100 | ||
| The Bean-nighe | Drabble | Dark Fantasy | 100 | ||
| The Miller’s Offering | Drabble | Dark Fantasy | 100 | ||
| The Loneliness of a Shepherdess | Drabble | Dark Fantasy | 100 | ||
| Heart of Thorns | Story | Fantasy | 23380 | Eerie River Publishing | After |
| Cut Corners | Story | Horror | 2028 | Raven and Drake Publishing | Death House |
| A Family Feast | Drabble | Horror | 100 | Black Ink Books | Infection |
| The Scratch | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| My Replacement | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| Up to Your Neck In It | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| The Last Train into Dodge | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| Don’t Feed The Squirrels | Story | Fantasy | 2950 | Raven and Drake Publishing | Candy Capers |
| The Dreams of Thraic | Story | Sci-fi | 5875 | Raven and Drake Publishing | Death Beyond |
| Tooth be Told | Drabble | Horror | 100 | Black Ink Books | Blood lust |
| Not a Witch | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| The Late Shift | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| Hoppy Ever After | Drabble | Horror | 100 | ||
| Snuffed Out | Drabble | Horror | 100 |
In addition to writing, I’ve found myself involved in a couple of online events, including:
A live online book launch for Breaking Rules Europe’s new drabble anthology Lost Lore and Legends:
An After Hours chat with the fantastic Time Mendees. It was meant to be about writing, but is mostly about anything but:
